MANLY MATES
2003. A wild and wicked farce. 7m, 4w.
Set in 1972, Manly Mates features the most famously controversial NSW state premier of them all, Sir Robert Askin. Bob leads a team of his more outrageous Sydney mates, movers and ‘business associates’, including a Police Commissioner, a property-developing local Councillor, an SP bookie, a strung-out bagman, an apprentice female politician prepared to give her all, a poker machine salesman from Chicago, and, unexpectedly, Bob’s sherry-drinking wife Mollie. They all collide at the beautiful Hotel Manly, in an upstairs bar overlooking the ferry wharf, where Bob’s regular summer Saturday is destined to spin out of control under the eager eye of an undercover cub reporter from ‘The Manly Daily’. High energy action.


Here's a great shot of Michael Miller as Sir Bob Askin and Tracy Thomas as Virginia in the January 2011 production of Manly Mates for Canberra Dramatics, followed by Cathy Bannister's Stage Whispers review:


Canberra Dramatic’s staging of Frank Hatherley’s Manly Mates harks back to the breezy corruption that used to be currency in New South Wales. In this farce based on real powerbrokers from the 1970s, duffle bags of money appear, alcohol is downed like water and women were expected to flash their assets on demand.

Community theatre group Canberra Dramatics does a great job of the play, although they are not helped by acoustics, especially in the first third. Luckily the volume and pacing increased as the play progressed, and the so second act built to an energetically funny climax.

The cast drew much mirth from the brazenness of the corruption, but danger was a constant undercurrent, shown by exaggerated paranoia, nervousness and loud outbursts. Rebecca Nicholson as Patricia, an innocent young woman invited into the exclusive Octopus Club as a fill-in barmaid, recalls Juanita Nielson, the young journalist organising protests against demolitions in Kings Cross. Likewise the appearance of a bag man with track marks and a Chicago thug with a gun underline just how risky a game this is.

Strong performances were given by Michael Miller as a smooth-talking Sir Bob, who could solve any problem by liberally applying wads of cash, and Mark Burnett, who was intimidating and bombastic as police commissioner Norm Allen. Angus Jolly made an amusingly drippy young policeman and Donny Wilkinson’s Mafioso poker machine merchant Joe produced gleefully crazed leers, notably when he did something unspeakable to a cat. But its the women who carry the show—Tracy Thomas as the ironically named Virginia, the earnest young Liberal candidate who ends up drunk and minus a dress, Rebecca Nicholson as barmaid Patricia, Judith Peterson as drug-addled SP bookie Peg and especially Margie Sainsbury, who imbues the fabulously eccentric Mollie Askin with a good slosh of sherry and just a touch of Susan Renouf.

Allan Saffron’s recent claim that his father Abe was paying Bob Askin and Norm Allen between five and ten grand per week in bribes can’t have come as a surprise to author Frank Hatherley. In 2004 when Manly Mates was first staged, there were howls of protest from Mrs Askin’s friends over her depiction as a sherry-drinking ditz, but deathly silence in defence of Sir Bob or Norman the Foreman. The play is a reminder that however appalling our political state leaders might be today, they once were one hell of a lot worse.

— Cathy Bannister

MY HENRY LAWSON
2002. A drama. 2m, 1w.
Covering the years 1896-1902, this revealing play - in turns comic and searing - examines the traumatic marriage of Henry and Bertha Lawson, and confronts those two enduring icons of the Australian imagination, Lawson and ‘Banjo’ Paterson. In 1896 Paterson is Lawson’s solicitor as well as his rival ‘bush poet’. Stunned to discover that the cash-strapped, heavy-drinking Lawson has secretly married a 19-year old nurse, Paterson tries to advise his friend and client. The play follows Henry and Bertha to the goldfields of Western Australia, and then to London, literary heart of the Empire. Paterson also comes to London, on assignment from the Sydney Morning Herald, and finds them in a desperate condition and with Bertha’s sanity under attack. But, returning to Sydney, it’s Henry who attempts suicide, from a North Head cliff top.

OPEN FOR INSPECTION
1999. Farce. 4m, 4w.
This lively laugh machine is dedicated to the proposition that "buying and selling property in Sydney is a total farce". The property being auctioned is a 1970s semi, "delivering a quality lifestyle with harbour glimpses", according to its glossy adverts. We visit on three ‘open for inspections’ and at the catastrophic climactic auction. Television producer Paul and his high-spending wife Griselda want to sell the house as soon as possible because they’ve got a vast bridging loan on a ritzy pile overlooking Balmoral Beach. Estate agent Hattie is equally desperate for she needs the commission and the approval of her wayward married boyfriend, the company’s top auctioneer. Two sets of odd couples vie for the house, each with their own desperate motives, and completing the cast is an outsider who calls himself ‘Chook’. Somehow he’s got his own key and is sleeping on the expensive sofa. What can he be looking for?

THE MERRY WIDOW FROM BLUEGUM CREEK
Music by Franz Lehar
New orchestrations by Stephen Gray
The Merry Widow is unchallenged the most popular Operetta of the 20th Century. There have been numerous English translations of the libretto since its original 1905 production, though most seem lame and unfunny in the 21st century. The story is set in the Paris embassy of mythical backwoods country, Pontevedria, to where comes the Widow on a quest to find her childhood sweetheart. Frank Hatherley’s tasty notion was to keep Paris, keep the embassy, keep the basic plot, keep absolutely all of Lehar’s magnificent music, but change Pontevedria to the world’s newest nation, Australia. Instantly the story is fresher, the characters more relevent and - a huge plus! — the jokes and language are far, far funnier. This is a big show, with 14 principals, chorus and dancing girls. But the sparkling new orchestrations by Stephen Grey are brilliantly compact: it’s possible to use just 5 strings and 2 keyboards, though there are parts for optional Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Trumpet, French Horn, Trombone, Percussion.

(Frank has also prepared a US version, entitled THE MERRY WIDOW FROM MAGNOLIA CREEK, in which the embassy is in the hands of the Southern Confederacy. He’d be happy to work closely with an American company/group to see this one staged. Script on request.)

NED KELLY’S SISTER’S TRAVELLING CIRCUS
Songs by Jeremy Barlow
1979, revised 2001. Play with Songs. 5m, 2w.
This small-scale musical was originally commissioned and successfully staged by Melbourne’s Pram Factory in 1979, and it went on to play the 1980 Sydney Festival in a tent in Hyde Park. Set in 1898, Kate Kelly is touring round the backblocks with her tawdry show celebrating the life and death of her infamous brother Ned, hung 18 years previously. In Gundagai one of her small cast does a runner and she has to employ a local actor at the last minute. This ring-in proves to be more trouble than he’s worth, possibly an Irish terrorist on the loose. The fiendishly clever plot simultaneously covers the afternoon rehearsing of the newcomer (who proves to be a terrible actor) at the same time as the disastrous evening performance. Kate’s show is packed with songs: at least one of the performers needs to be able to play guitar or fiddle or squeezebox. The original production was praised by Melbourne and Sydney critics: "A lively piece of theatre, crammed with surprises"; "a punchy, zestful romp"; "a clever and economical piece of theatre which offers two plays for the price of one".

ROSIE
Music by PETER STANNARD
Book by FRANK HATHERLEY
Lyrics by STANNARD & HATHERLEY

ROSIE was inspired by the life of Rosie Shaw (1905-1971) — florist, free spirit, Sydney icon. The original 2005 production featured GERALDINE TURNER as 'Rosie'...

Cockney Rosina has a dream - to be a great singer like Melba and a great dancer like Pavlova. She's travelled halfway round the world and is only selling flowers from a stall in Martin Place, but still the dream lives on! The musical tells how defiant, brash, indomitable Rosie becomes an inspirational Sydney character of the 1940s, 50s and 60s, a champion of the outsiders, a dreamer of dreams. By day, the 'Diva in Gumboots' charms locals and visitors to the centre of the city with her uninhibited singing. By night, she leads quite another life...


SYDNEY MORNING HERALD REVIEW by John Shand, August 9, 2005
ROSIE, Independent Theatre, Sydney
Few of the dreamers among us live to see their dreams come true. Some become embittered, some morose, some keep bashing their heads against unyielding walls, and some turn away and claim they "grew up". Coping with defeated dreams lies at the heart of this new musical about Rose Shaw, the real-life Martin Place flower seller who treated her customers to bursts of opera as well as bunches of gladioli.

With music by Peter Stannard, book by Frank Hatherley and lyrics by both, Rosie traces a life that was supposed to culminate in ballet or opera stardom, and instead wound up at a street stall. Yet the emergent theme is that while Rose may not have fulfilled her dreams, she was still a star: a beloved Sydney icon for 40 years. Stannard's old-fashioned score - think music hall with flashes of Lionel Bart - seems to suit Rose's Cockney roots and the 1920-1971 time span. The story is more episodic than narrative, but Hatherley (who also directed it) has some nifty devices for unifying the disparate periods and characters. For instance, the older Rose (Geraldine Turner) observes and comments on scenes with her younger self (a pert Jillian O'Dowd), which provides laughs, helps knit the total character together, and blurs what could otherwise be awkward leaps of time.

Turner is convincing as the larger-than-life, warm-hearted and charismatic Rose. She is befriended by Naomi (Angela Toohey), another stage-struck wannabe who ends up singing ditties to drinkers in rough-house boozers. Rose is disdainful, but to Naomi at least it's work doing what she wants to. Another parallel lies with George (Rodney Dobson), an artist who takes an eternity to complete a painting, and longer to propose to Rose. He, too, eventually finds work, but it is painting ceilings. In Never Wait Until Tomorrow Dobson touchingly renders the show's finest song.

A small ensemble of commendable versatility and vocal strength has been assembled. Graham McLean's Martin Place set glows with nostalgia, and Hatherley uses it to maintain a fluidity of action. The music is competently realised by a trio under Lindsay Partridge, while the choreography of Ronne Arnold and Jane Beckett dovetails with the yesteryear flavour.